


How Magister Damask lost a Fortune by a Coin

by saphsaq



Series: Stories inspired by the novel "Darth Plagueis" [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Darth Plagueis - James Luceno, Star Wars: Rise of Empire Era - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Gran (Star Wars), Jedi padawan, Muun, Ugnauth, Zabrak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-09
Updated: 2013-05-09
Packaged: 2017-12-10 21:27:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/790344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saphsaq/pseuds/saphsaq
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The knowledge of Mr. Luceno's novel <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_Darth_Plagueis">Darth Plagueis</a> is required, albeit not mandatory. I hope you can draw some enjoyment off this little shake-up of the SW universe anyway and ignore the blunder I made with spelling and grammar. Also I hope, that you, dear reader, will forgive me my foray into the earthly folklore together with the freedom I took in regard of SW facts (especially in regard of Maul's mother and father). I did it solely in the service of the plot of this story! And I should not forgot to mention, this is not a work of commerce (even if a member of the IGBC plays a role in it), but pure fandom.</p><p>Unbetaed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How Magister Damask lost a Fortune by a Coin

Seventeen year old Palpatine had played with the antique coin, had whirled it on it's string around his outstretched forefinger, had thrown and caught it repeatedly. Now he hold it tightly in his hand, feeling its edges, albeit smooth from age, pressing sharp in his palm. Three months since the Muun had last contacted him. Three months. Only three months ago he had worked as the Banking Clan's inside man at Naboo. And now he was meant to play aside well-behaved children in the sandbox called 'Legislative Youth Program' on Chandrila.

Rationally Palpatine knew there was scarcely a way to contact him without tipping off his tutor Vidar Kim, who supervised him in proxy of his family during the stay at Chandrila. But in stubborn denial of reality Palpatine had hoped the Muun would find a way to reach out to him. Hego Damask had appeared so sure, so powerful, so... so close... The coin had been all the time like a token of a mutual secret Magister Damask and he shared. A promise of things to come - above all of an end of his father's stupid machinations. But the Muun had not contacted him for three months.

Palpatine let out an loud, agonised sigh, as if this voicing of his emotions would bring relief. Somehow it did and he ambled now faster over the campus lawn. He headed toward a pavilion where a classmate waited for him for comparing their last notes about the lectures. Palpatine had become loosely friend with Snimag, an Ugnauth attendee of the youth program. He had discovered in the dwarfish porcine humanoid aside a nasal pronunciation of galactic basic an alert mind, which could wrestle with an idea for hours just for the joy of it. That was more capacity than any of the other pupils displayed.

The gazebo was in bright daylight an eye-blinding affair, a donation by some of the ice-worlds of the galaxy. In dusk or dawn however the composition of dainty framework, glass and mirrors seemed to glow in an mellow rose or azure. Many a Sullustans claimed at moonless nights it would feature three distinct shades of green. Inside Snimag was squatting as usual on the backrest of a chair, thus overlooking the pile of datapads and flimsy sheets on the top of the table from an almost human hight.

But another one of the chairs was claimed too. It was a young woman, barely out of her teens but already a donnish appearance. A Zabrak so it seemed because of the crown of twelve sharp horns on her head and the equal sharp facial tattoos. 'Lo and behold, Sni has a girl --- not.' It where brown Jedi robes heavy in tradition and fabric responsible for her scholarly look. A cold heat, a black flame blazed up deep in Palpatine's core to subside equal suddenly. He stepped back: "Good day, ma'm. Greetings, Sni. Shall I come back a bit later? Just message me, Sni. And don't feel rushed, take your time."

"Nonsense! You're already too late. Where have you been?" The Ugnauth waved his arms in broad gestures as if to make up for his size. "This is Padawan Kycina, and this is Palpatine of Naboo."

"Just Palpatine?" Her voice was melodiously by long training, not by nature.

"Just Palpatine," he confirmed and sat down. "You're from Iridonia, are you not? I had a nana from Iridonia when I was a little child." The cranial horns let appear her forehead higher than it actually was and her hands where rather heavy. Palpatine smiled thinly. 'Ungainly girls with a certain talent probably don't have much options aside joining the Jedi.'

"Padawan Kycina is my benefactor. The one who negotiated for me the participation in the Youth Legislative Program," explained Snimag.

"I know, this Ugnauth blood profession thing. That was very nice of you, Jedi Learner." Palpatine played absent-mindedly with a datapad on the table. What was a 'benefactor' compared to a partner like Hego Damask? Then he remembered of the three months.

A chirping sound filled suddenly the room. The Jedi mumbled an excuse and produced an urgently signalling intercom from her robe. Reading its message, she burst into an embarrassed giggle: "Oh, no! I've parked my starfighter at Hanna City spaceport and forgot the fee."

As if pushed by this unexpected display of girlishness, Palpatine flipped his antique coin in a perfect parable over the desk: "Feel free to use this in case you happen to be out of cash."

Kycina declined with a calm shake of her broad chin having regained her jedily posture in an blink of an eye: "That is too kind of you." Peculiarly the coin did not touch down in front of her, but retraced the way of its flight. And more peculiar, the coin did not go back home at all. It stopped in mid air, hoovering at the apex of the parable over the table, at eye-level between Palpatine and the Jedi.

'Why have I done this? I wouldn't even take notice of her if she wasn't a Jedi. And because of that profession of hers I should be twice as careful, should I not? Yet now I'm in ---' Palpatine reached for the strange power he know inside him, to use it for the first time in his life willingly instead of been driven by it: "It doesn't rob me of anything." The coin twitched, but unable to leave its place it started to rotate.

Padawan Kycina said mildly: "Your generosity humbles me." The coin twitched again, took a turn and rotated into the other direction.

"I don't intend to, said Palpatine." He bend forward, his hands flat on the table, not leaving coin and Jedi for a moment from his gaze. The coin had again reversed its course of rotation and was now spinning faster. There was no answer from Kycina, only the faint wosh-sound of the rotating coin. Snimag shifted his eyes from one player in this curious match to the other one and back as if he was sort of a referee. "I ---," he suggested discreetly after a while, "I think I go and see what's the matter with your ship, Padawan." With that the Ugnauth jumped from his elevated seat and ran off.

The Jedi did send a wordless nod of thanks after the little figure hurrying over the lawn, thus relinquishing for a split of a moment her grip on the coin. The metal disk tottered and was about to fall down at her side of the table, when she regained focus. "You where late Snimag said. I don't want to be the reason for another delay of the work you two where about."

"Rest assured, you don't." Was it imagination or was there a knowingly smile in the corners of her eyes? Sni was right, he had been late. Not only the tinkering on his speeder had become excessed beyond reason and against his usual punctuality... As if something tried to keep him from doing what exactly? Moreover, what kind of power had interest in using him, but didn't care to tell him? Was he nothing better than a little Ugnauth scampering through the balmgrass to please some Padawan? Three months! Palpatine kindled the spark inside him into a veritable flame.

Faster and faster the coin spun between the two faces  Chandrila's sun had proceeded on its daily routine, now it's rays reflected on the small metal disk. At some point the coin spun that fast, it throw a flurry of flashes, while the chain it was normally hanging from stand upright in the air.

"This piece seems to be quite old and valuable," Padawan Kycina eventually said, "part of your heirloom?"

"No," Palpatine shook his head, "a gift of a --- a gift." He suddenly felt at loss for the right word to tell what the Muun was for him.

Ignoring his hesitation Kycina asked in an carefree voice: "Now, I have two questions for you. What do you see when you look out of the window?"

Palpatine obliged, splitting his attention reluctantly but apt between coin and outlook: "Grassland, clouds, people --- Snimag, the old Henderson, H'yalp ---"

The Jedi interrupted this account with the second question: "And what do you see, if you look into one of the mirrors of this pavilion here?"

Palpatine listened for the fire inside him, but it was tired: "Me."

"What a difference a little metal make ---," the Jedi pursed her lips looking inquiringly at Palpatine.

"So here I am, a bright young thing, spoiled by wealth," Palpatine chuckled mirthlessly. "Throwing you some alms." His forefinger tipped at the spinning coin in the air. The coin didn't budge to his bidding. Palpatine's hand did fall heavily on the table. He had almost exactly quoted the coroner sitting over the gravest of his numerous misdoings, the two overrun pedestrians. The coroner had said this to Palpatine in private before the offence was dismissed as petty and thus Palpatine once again salvaged by his father's power and wealth.

"You probably heard from your nana, that on the world I come from, we have a sacred ball game. Played very often and everywhere, even at sister-worlds like Dathomir. I won't bore you with its spiritual meaning or its set of rules. Just one you should know: In the end the winner is allowed to claim from the audience whatever he or she wants. The food the people might carry, their jewellery, their robes, everything down to their blood. I'm from a poor family, the only child and did well in the game. Then one day, a day, of them the annals of Iridonia say, it saw one of the hardest matches ever played, with bold moves on both sides and an unlikely win for me in the end, I made a discovery."

"That you had the Force, I guess."

The Padawan let Palpatine's attempt on brashness pass with a smile: "I had jumped the fence, standing amidst the crowd ready to take from them whatever I fancied. But I did not. It seemed suddenly useless to me, since I had already received their best and most precious thing. No gemstone, no shimmersilk, nothing could bear comparison with the cheering which had carried me through the game and embraced me after it, as if the audience never had doubted I would win. Eventually I grabbed a random thing to honour the custom, but nothing more," the Jedi gestured to a piece of metal-work holding her robe together over her breast.

The coin spun still in the air. "Nice story, nice brooch, everything very nice," said Palpatine nonchalantly. But it sounded forced.

"It is interesting that you refer to it as brooch. I had not seen it as a piece of fine craftsmanship until I took it to an artisan to sell it. It had been crudely attached to a knife handle as adornment. Abused as the artisan said." She loosened the brooch from her cowl and offered it Palpatine. Reluctantly he took it. "So you didn't cash in on your win then ---" He turned the piece I his hands, running his fingers gingerly over it. Quietly he said: "Why shouldn't I say 'brooch'? Of course, it its charred --- some of the pearls are rotten black, and some of the gemstones already missing." Palpatine raised his eyes to met the Jedi's: "But still it is beautiful --- is it not?"

Holding Palpatine's gaze, Kycina nodded slowly. Then she plucked with a tender gesture the coin from its airy place and rose. "I'm afraid our talk has to end right now. I can't leave Snimag the burden of dealing with Chandrila immigration regarding my parking violation. They can be insistent I've heard."

'Perhaps she's worth a second look,' thought Palpatine leaning back in his seat and regarding intently the Padawan's well rounded backside as she crossed the room. The power inside him had curled up to something light and placidly crackling. He dared with a cheeky grin: "I've passed the Jedi test with flying colours, I guess. Isn't there some paperwork to do? Some application form to fill? In triplicate if possible?"

"Oh," responded the Kycina in the same jocular way turning in the door of the gazebo, "my days as a member of a Weequay press-gang are long over. But if you keep the brooch and I the coin, it is as good as exchanged business cards. Ah, and one more thing --- I'm not that into red-heads."

### At another time, at another place

"What are you doing?" Pax Teem showed a rare trait in senators, let alone Gran senators. He was irritated. "You where scribbling all the way to the shuttle and still have not finished. What are you doing?"

The tapping at the communicator chased: "Assigning him to team Blue." The senator's aide Aks Moe trained his three eye-stalks candidly on his superior.

"Huh?!"

"Assigning him to another team. Team Blue."

"I'm not hard of hearing," sorted Teem. "I want to know why this Human shall become appointed to one of the Protectorate's finest racing teams. It is a racing team, not a freak show!"

"Look," Moe steered the senator to a comfortable seat in the spaceship's lounge and handed him the communicator. With a flick of his fingers he elicited from the device a selection of videos. The footage of the latest race, he explained. Another finger flick and the stream of pictures zoomed in on the pit where the pod-race had moments earlier ended and the crowd of spectators cheered for the winner. Only three of the vehicles had passed the dangerous course. Two driven by Dugs, but one by a Human.

Senator Teem moved his heavy jaws in disdain. "Five races and he never won any of them."

"But he finished all of them. With the pod save and sound. Which Dug can say the same for himself? And today he came out on third."

"By mere luck. That still makes him not a champion."

"But look," repeated the senator's aide, tapping quickly at the communicator until it showed full-screen a young red-hair, rising from his pod, climbing on it, standing there tall and proud and waving to the crowd who responded in one gleeful cry, louder than they had cheered for the winner. The youngster turned and waved again and again and once again, each time rising from the audience another hooray like he was conducting an orchestra.

"I see. No champion of the race, but champion of the hearts ---"

"Why not champion of the race too? Team Blue commands the best material  imagine what he can do with that." Aks Moe tilted his three eye-stalks and two ears slyly: "Imagine the headlines. Gardulla will get blisters when racing at Malastare is all over the news again."

The senator chuckled, his sizeable belly heaving up and down: "Good one. The freak show then."

"I'll promise you, the Hutt will become one big blister herself, when team Blue visits Tatooine next Boonta Eve."

"Not to forget," mused Pax Teem, "not to forget Hego the Hospitable. This blasted Muun bankster will have a taste of his own medicine when the credits start to poor slower into his accounts."

##### at another time, at another place

'What a setback,' Darth Plagueis thought. He felt suddenly weak and old beyond his years. The tremor of exhaustion gripped his limbs, his scraggy fingers searched involuntarily for a hold. A picture came into his mind, a remembrance of himself standing in the middle of a raging tidal current trying to catch redfish with his bare hands. The silvery, roaring water reached up to his neck, the fishes slippery crimson dots in it and he fast and nimble after them. Yet when the wave was over, he stand numb in now just ankle deep water. Naked, dripping, shivering and with empty hands but the laughter of Darth Tenebrous ringing in his ears. "What a setback," Plagueis said aloud to the operation table where life and midiclorians drained faster than he could hold them back from what had once been Darth Venamis. "Remove that and have the room cleaned and disinfected at once. I'll be back in a cycle."

"Any more orders, Magister Damask?" Asked 11-4D dutifully.

"Have your recordings of this last operation copied. I'll go over them in my studio."

On the way to his private rooms Plagueis thought briefly about the loss of this young yet promising ally  what was his name? Palpatine, right. Palpatine of the house Palapatine. His parents had probably named him after this garrulous rhymer Omar. 'I would have given up my first name too if my parents had done such a folly.' Plagueis chuckled but then shook his head. If he had duly been at Chandrila... Yet the day he had chosen for a visit in disguise, Hanna City space port was shut down for undetermined time. And just because of an unlabelled spaceship parking in the wrong place! As if any decent terrorist could resort to the idea to blow up at Chandrila of all. Plagueis shrugged dismissively, but his thoughts kept stubbornly to their track: 'I wonder why the youngster does so well in pod-racing. Does he have the Force? Never could read him deep enough... If he has, what a waste. However, quite in character for a Human to throw away even the most precious gift just because you can instead to operate it according to the rules of reasonable accountability.

##### at another time, at another place

"Well, I have to say, I'm glad he's not longer so thin," remarked Lady Palpatine viewing with motherly satisfaction the news picture of young Palpatine, dubbed 'a talent to be watched'. "Look, Cosinga, he appears to be very well."

The addressed grumbled: "Of course you put weight on, if you live on a high-gravity planet." Glancing briefly over the picture showing his son in pod-race garb and dusted over with the dirt of the track but a winner's easy smile on his face, he added: "At least he doesn't meddle any longer with politics. But he still spits us into the face with denying his given name."

Taking up where her farther had ended, Palpatine's eldest sister suggested: "Perhaps the Dugs and Gran can't pronounce it."

"What an invidious thing to say, Omara!" Lady Palpatine regarded her daughter with a witheringly gaze until she thought her rebuke had yielded its desired effect. Then she immersed herself again into the news with a light sigh: "However it's true, this bovine senator had been rather a disappointment. How he had watched my tulips at the garden party --- Well, it's only a protectorate, not a kingdom."

Palpatine's younger brothers didn't comment on the picture showing the eldest with two grid-girls - whose dresses didn't leave much questions unanswered about Twi'lek anatomy - tightly in his arms. But if the Palpatine brothers had been asked for comment  which they had, as usually, not  they had probably kept their thoughts for themselves anyway. How unfair, the age of consent was at Malastare so much lower than on Naboo! Just for the record, one of Palpatine's sisters thought the same.

**Author's Note:**

> First published 05/19/2012 at the [dmeb2](http://www.dmeb2.org/) message board. Barely edited for publishing here.


End file.
